Feature Film Version of La Bohème, Starring Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazón, in Theaters this September

“An intimate staging of Puccini’s tragic love story, which nevertheless retains the feel of a live performance and shows why Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazón are currently considered two of opera’s biggest stars.”– Independent ( London )

Anna Netrebko, who has graced silver screens for the past three years in The Met: Live In HD broadcasts, returns to movie theaters across America this September, when Emerging Pictures releases a feature film version of Puccini’s La Bohème, starring the Russian soprano alongside Mexican tenor Rolando Villazón. London ’s Times calls the film “starry and sumptuous,” while according to Classic FM magazine, “The lavish sets and special effects give rise to an extraordinary theatrical opera film.”

The movie, which was filmed in 2008 in Vienna and is directed by Oscar- and Emmy-nominated director Robert Dornhelm, will be shown in theaters in select cities starting September 23.

London’s Times, in reviewing Netrebko’s full-length recording of La Bohème, asserts, “It is succulently dramatic – a tribute … to the stars’ power.” The San Francisco Chronicle wrote: “[Villazón] sounds relaxed and lyrical as the young poet. His high notes in the climaxes are vibrant and attacked cleanly … . Netrebko, too, is in excellent voice, her gleaming soprano filling out Mimì’s wistful phrases with grace and sensitivity.”

When an artist sets paint to canvas, there are brush strokes used for different
effects. Sometimes those strokes are subtle, imperceptible; they produce works
of art like the Mona Lisa. Other times the very obvious nature of the stroke
is the art, as in works by Van Gogh. With some composers of music, the notes
on the page are their craft. How those notes translate into an aural experience
is what defines some composers as great artists. Brian Ferneyhough has a masterful command of the techniques of putting notes
on the page. These techniques are sometimes so subtle, even though written in
black and white, they escape detection. Some of what he attempts with his music
is just that, to escape detection, to bury the framework, diverting the ear
away from the structure, so only the music is heard. The subtlety is so fine
it is almost imperceptible. Even though he studied at several institutions, he is considered self-taught,
studying scores from Boulez, …

There are numerous books on the topic, and every composer, librettist, director, singer and audience member has their opinion as to what role the music should play in an opera. In a play without music, the words ought to support the meaning behind a character's actions. However, in the case of action movies, often times the action is what tells the story and there aren't words, just images to forward the plot. We might hear music to accompany action, build tension, but the action tells the story. Musicals tend to speak until the emotion of the moment just "has" to break out in song - unless it's something like "Mama Mia" where the dialog is the rails we travel on between songs; the songs themselves, written before the concept of the musical, are the focus of the production, while the story is secondary.Operas are a different beast. The music provides emotion to the words spoken, but it also plays the role of ambience when there is only action. In "…